[21] According to biographies at the websites of San Francisco Unified School District and other sources, Collins' father was one of the first African American professors at UCLA.
[1] Collins was an educator for 20 years prior to 2018 and ran the "San Francisco Public School Mom" blog.
After a national outcry, the board decided in a 4 to 3 vote, with Collins (together with Mark Sanchez and Gabriela Lopez) in the minority, to cover the art work instead.
"[17] Work by Collins and others on the board to rename 44 schools named after individuals and places associated allegedly with racism or oppression was the focus of substantial controversy, particularly after board members disclosed that research into the naming origins was done by "volunteers" who had no historical expertise or training, and ultimately legal action.
Collins stated that the intent was not to erase history, but to "create space for new people who deserve to be celebrated .... Nobody is going to not know who George Washington is.
[37][15] Writing for Newsweek, Angel Eduardo opined that calling merit "racist" erases people of color by reducing them to a quota.
Prior to her election to the San Francisco Board of Education in 2018,[44] Collins used a racial slur to reference Asian Americans in her tweets on December 4, 2016, referring to them as "house n****r [sic]",[45] and "the help", after alleging anti-Blackness in the Asian American population at her daughter's school, and accusing Asian American teachers and students in the San Francisco Unified School District of perpetuating the model minority myth by assimilating and not engaging in critical race theory dialogue.
[46] Over the course of several tweets on December 4, 2016, Collins wrote: Many Asian [students] and [teachers] I know won't engage in critical race convos unless they see how they're impacted by white supremacy.
"[46] On March 19, 2021, members of the recall effort against Collins resurfaced the tweets amidst a surge in violent crimes against Asians.
[11] By March 21, 2021, nearly two dozen elected officials had condemned the tweets and called for her resignation,[47] including Mayor of San Francisco London Breed, 10 out of 11 current San Francisco Board of Supervisors and several former supervisors, California State Assembly members David Chiu and Phil Ting, California State Senator Scott Wiener, and fellow commissioners, Jenny Lam and Faauuga Moliga.
[48] Joe Eskenazi of Mission Local said, "The solidarity among San Francisco's political class in calling for school board vice president Alison Collins to resign is stunning in its damn-near unanimity.
Collins said, "If we're going to talk about what I said, we should be looking at who surfaced what I said and what were their motivations in sharing old tweets about during a time when Asian Americans were going through a lot of fear and pain.
"[56] On March 31, 2021, Collins filed an $87-million lawsuit against the San Francisco Unified School District and the 5 board members who had voted for the motion of no-confidence due to her tweets against Asian Americans.
The lawsuit alleged that the vote violated her due process, freedom of speech, and caused distress, humiliation, and losses in income and reputation.
[52] On April 4, 2021, her lawyer Charles Bonner, said the lawsuit aimed to end what he called lies about the tweets, noting similarities to words used by Malcolm X about bringing together all of those oppressed by racism, “[s]he was saying, ‘Listen, we all got to coalesce, we’ve got to unify, we’ve got to hold hands and recognize our commonality.’ So she called everyone to action.
UC Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky said that California school districts are classified "as agents of the state and thus exempt from damages in civil rights cases.
"[59] Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe agreed that the suit is likely to be dismissed, saying that, “Courts have more important things to do than provide a stage for the resolution of essentially interpersonal political feuds, especially when the stakes involve the education of children who obviously cannot fend for themselves.”[59] A similar 2010 lawsuit, Blair vs. Bethel School District, lost at every level including the 9th circuit court of appeals.
[66][67] It was the first San Francisco recall election since the failed attempt to oust then Mayor Dianne Feinstein in 1983[67] Supporters of the recall accused Collins of negligence, expressing anger that public school remained closed in 2020-2021 while other districts and private schools opened in the Bay Area.
[67] The recall supporters cited Collins's tweets about Asian Americans, and the subsequent lawsuit against the school district and her fellow commissioners, as additional reasons to remove her from office.
[76] She said the recall is "clearly an attack on democracies" orchestrated by "billionaires" and conservative think tanks, and "I'm actually really proud of my work on the board", she stated.
[80] Recall opponents included former Assembly Member Tom Ammiano and Supervisors Shamann Walton and Dean Preston.
[37] In April 2021, the San Francisco Planning Department received an anonymous 103-page complaint against Collins and her husband for illegally merging two apartments in their Russian Hill home without a permit.
"[37] On September 14, 2021, the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection gave the Collinses 30 days to fix the violations and pay fines.